Ankara emerges as central battleground in Turkey elections

Ankara: The mayor of Ankara is a man of monumental ambition. Battling to stay in office in the bellwether contest of nationwide local elections on Sunday, Melih Gokcek’s promises for the national capital include Europe’s biggest theme park — complete with 70 metre tall dinosaur replicas — a 23km cable-car route to boost public transport, and an 11km canal to rival the Bosphorus.

But whether he will win a record fifth term to make such mega-projects a reality is not certain.

As Turkey goes to the polls, Ankara has become the single most heated fight in the country — a battle marked by warnings of possible assassination attempts and freighted with significance for the future direction of the nation.

Polls indicate that, of the three largest cities in Turkey, Gokcek’s home of 5 million is the most closely disputed ahead of this Sunday’s vote.

In Istanbul, the biggest prize and almost a country unto itself, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s formidable electoral machine has long held sway, while the west coast city of Izmir is a secularist stronghold. But Ankara is a hybrid case: proud of its heritage as the capital of the Turkish secular republic, but located in the pious heartlands of Anatolia.

If Gokcek, 65, holds the city for the ruling AK party, it will be to the considerable relief of Erdogan, who has depicted the local elections as a virtual referendum on his rule as he struggles to fend off a raging corruption scandal and a vitriolic battle with Islamic former allies.

By contrast, if the mayor were defeated after a 20-year-tenure, it would signify a change of political weather after the steady advance of Islamist-rooted politics over the past decade.

Erdogan, the leader of that movement, is not on the ballots for Sunday’s vote. Yet his presence is inescapable. News channels relay footage of his election rallies on a twice-daily basis, AK party vehicles travel through streets playing a campaign song in which the prime minister’s name makes up most of the lyrics, and Erdogan foes emphasise the corruption claims against his administration.

With so much at stake, tensions have risen markedly.

On Tuesday, Mansour Yavas, Gokcek’s main rival in Ankara, claimed that state officials had informed him that more than 100 armed “provocateurs” had come to the capital to disrupt the election.

“A serious attack against me and my team has been planned,” Yavas said. “The elections will be sabotaged by creating turmoil when ballot boxes are opened and the votes are counted.”

A day before, Gokcek had mentioned Yavas — along with other opposition figures — as a possible target of an assassination attempt. “They want to drag Turkey into an environment of chaos,” the mayor said, referring to unspecified forces.

Gokcek is no stranger to conspiracy theories. He last year accused a BBC reporter of acting as a British agent in a plot to humble Turkey. But this time, in such a tight fight, his comments reflect a more general atmosphere of fear and anticipation.

In recent days, competing polls have given each candidate narrow leads.

Yavas, who plans to open the city’s accounts and turn much of the centre into Ankara’s version of Manhattan’s Central Park, says he is confident of uniting enough opposition voters to outnumber AK party supporters.

Four years ago, as a candidate from the nationalist party, he came a strong third, with 27 per cent of the vote. He is now running as part of the main opposition Republican People’s party to bolster his support.

For all of Gokcek’s talk of great construction schemes, his previous grand projects have come to little, according to Yavas’ aides, with inadequate public transport stifled by traffic jams and the city’s international profile far below other countries’ capitals.

“For us, the biggest project of all is to get rid of Melih Gokcek,” Yavas said in a recent interview.

Gokcek, meanwhile, has been busy firming up support among working class conservatives — a demographic that may decide the race, and one that has benefited from his administration’s largesse.

“I am planning to vote for Gokcek, because he is working hard: we are happy with his services,” says Gulten, a 36-year-old cleaning lady, emphasising food aid. She herself used to regularly pick up lentils, rice, oil and butter from the municipality for three years; others got coal.

“I don’t know if the municipality or Gokcek is corrupt,” Gulten adds. “Perhaps they are, but they are helping the poor.” Such attitudes may determine the fate of Gokcek on Sunday — and that of Erdogan, too.

— Financial Times